More nations now involved in space travel

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, March 19, 2009

It's been nearly 40 years since a U.S. flag was planted on the moon. Now, it appears a global rush is on to reach the moon again. This time we expect many ethical questions will arise with the new "moon race."

This isn't fantasy. It's today's reality. Look up. India, Japan and China now circle the moon with their respective spacecraft, and they will be joined by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter next year.

It may not have captured global attention like the first moon race between Russia and the U.S., but the moon exploration is once again in the plans of mankind. Private enterprise may even get in on the race. The Google Lunar X Prize is a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 1,640 feet and transmit video, images and data back to Earth.

Ultimately, nations will begin to land on the moon and it's just a matter of time until we have to decide who owns the moon. It's realistic to think some craterfront moon property or locked ice environment is going to hold special attention from exploring nations with moon bases.

Will the moon become common ground for all nations, not subject to national appropriation? Or will nations claim individual property rights and return us to the days of a gold rush mentality with claims by planting a flag? Maybe, homesteading once again will rule the day. If you can keep the property, you can own it.

Will the laws of earthly precedent reach to the moon? There is no precedent for lunar law, but there is plenty of property rights law on Earth to apply to the moon. That's tricky, however, since nations differ radically on matters of property rights.

Still, man's law could serve as the basis for a Moon Treaty if some world council could agree on such a matter. The United Nations, for instance, could be called on to decide lunar matters as well as earthly squabbles. Isn't that a delightful thought?

We have little trust mankind can establish concrete lunar laws until there has been some sort of show of strength. That could be through the best space program, the nation with the most assets on the moon or through, heaven forbid, war.

We suspect in the end, the nation with the most moon clout will rule the expanses of the lunar surface. After all, that's the way man's law became precedent in the first place.